A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,417
Look for VA award tickets or check the price for purchasing a ticket in their (true) Premium Economy class. Cities in Australia other than SYD might have better award availability.
If you're going to fly DL/SkyTeam on an award ticket and then pay the remainder of the way to Australia, look for places other than DPS unless you just want to visit Bali. Singapore and Guam are the obvious candidates in my mind (but be careful about Guam if you're going through China because Guam counts as USA for TWOV purposes). I once considered a pacific circle fare connecting through Guam on the way to Cairns. Singapore is served by DL from NRT and has a good airport and good LCCs. BKK and HKG might also work, with the DL SEA-HKG flights generally having decent award availability. The DL HND routes *might* also have better DL award availability.
Another idea would be to investigate whether you can save DL miles by getting two award tickets, one USA-Asia RT and a second one for Asia-Australia RT, where the second one by definition would be at "low" using DL miles. Maybe KE through ICN, for example?